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{
    "id": 393506,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/393506/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 194,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Murungi",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 93,
        "legal_name": "Kiraitu Murungi",
        "slug": "kiraitu-murungi"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me an opportunity to support this Motion. What we are seeing is a deliberate attempt to undermine devolution. One of the ways of killing devolution is denying people funds. We cannot hope to develop an effective system of participatory governance at the county level with underpaid, overworked and demoralised members of the county assemblies. We are aware that there are some activities by mandarins of the Executive who are hell bent to make sure that devolution does not work. Some of these people are in those commissions. The commissions are part of the Executive. They are not as independent as you think even though they are independent arms of the Executive. We are seeing a very clear case of impunity. I think time has come for us, as Senators, who are guardian angels of devolution and the county governments, to stand up against this impunity. Time has come for us to say “no” to Sarah Serem. There was a stand-off between her Commission and the Members of the National Assembly early this year. There was intervention from the Executive and the issue between the National Assembly and the Commission was resolved. Why can the same process not be used to resolve the issues between Members of the County Assemblies and the Commission regarding salaries of the MCAs? The fact that we are now six months down this crisis and no one is paying attention to it, it is very sad, indeed. The MCAs are very frustrated. Last weekend, I met the MCAs from Meru in Mombasa and this issue was discussed. I participated in the debate the whole afternoon. I listened to the plight of 67 MCAs. They talked about the difficulties they are having in sending their children to school. You cannot expect someone with such economic pressures at home to spend time overseeing budgets and over-sighting processes of county executives. This is not a light matter. I am very happy that our Chief Whip, Sen. Elachi, had an occasion to talk to the Chairman of the Speakers of the County Assemblies. She understood their plight and that is why she has brought this Motion. I want to congratulate her for this. Is this Senate important? We are the lawmakers. We are the representatives of the interests of the counties. Can we allow this crisis to continue? Can we allow devolution system at the county level to collapse as we stand by and watch? I say “no.” We have to say “no” to the machinations which are very clear. There was a letter which Sen. Elachi had which showed that MCAs met Ms. Serem. She told them to give her time to evaluate their jobs and said that she would get back to them. She got back to them by telephone and said that she had procurement challenges and that she had not found people to evaluate the job done by MCAs. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}